Roadside repairs..

[Ruairidh Dunford]

These are excellent stories - my mother could write another book!

Slightly concerned that Chris G met some Scots who only spoke Shakespearean!!!

[Hedd_Jones]

Some years ago I assisted my friend Ian move his decrepid looking steam roller from Mellington Hall in Montgomeryshire, to Woore in Shropshire over 2 days. Driven under its own power. The over night stop was outside his parents home in Shrewsbury.  

At this point I didnt have a steam roller licence, but he did. 

The first day went perfectly. The second day started well until just beyond Shawbury a pipe feeding live steam via a valve to the magical implement called an 'injector' which magically uses steam pressure to squirt water into the boiler against that same pressure. Not good. There was a mechanical feedpump which seemed to be in a good 'mood' that day but was usually troublesome in the extreme. And generally the non preferred methid of boiler feed. 

Ian didnt think much of my suggestion of a temporary repair incorporating some garden hose and a ruck of jubilee clips. So he buggered off with the pipe in his dads car to 'fix it'. 

I plodded on on my own, at this point it dawned on me i had no L plates (a car licence allows you to drive a steam roller on L plates). After an hour I had to stop to fill the water tank from a hydrant. And to replenish the coal bunker, a physical task on your own, even when your 20 something!.  Another hour later Ian returned having made a bronze sleeve on his lathe and silver soldered the lot together. We fitted it and it was no bloody good, the silver solder hadn't taken on one side. Ian saw his arse and buggered off again. I carried on. 

I next saw him while i was going round the Market Drayton bypass, mid afternoon, by which time I was very weary (my sandwiches and bottle of pop were in Ian dads car). The pipe this time was spot on, and Ian declared we would have lunch there. I told him we were having lunch in the pub round the corner, and he was buying!.  And he did.

[Alan]

Some time around 1970, a friend bought a 1933 Austin 10 unseen from a guy who advertised in exchange and mart. It said it didn’t go. It was in South London. We were at University in Birmingham. I should have said no, but off we set in a Ford Pop we shared armed with a borrowed AtoZ of London and a tow rope. The car had previously seen duty as a coal truck was bought and off we set. No idea of how to get home we headed for central London, towing past Big Ben, and realising that if we drove away from the river we were probably going north. It got dark. Somewhere north of the city the first tyre burst. They were 30 years old, see. (See other thread) what followed was a drive in ten mile stages, followed by hunting for second hand 19inch? Tyres, as one by one they all popped, and so did most of the replacements. It took 3 days to get home.

[Roland Alcock]

Some of you may have seen this before. All three wheel studs had sheared. 
The hero bit is me thinking "bugger it, why stop in the road?" 
So I just kept going round the corner. 
Pints of beer while gazing at the hub. 
It took ages to find the wheel it was well buried in the undergrowth. 

https://youtu.be/_tKF7gG1pzM

Roly

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In the early 1960s my eldest brother ran a big end in his Morris 8 somewhere near Tenby. 
He carefully dropped the sump at the roadside complete with oil. 
Identified the failed big end. Removed that con rod and piston. 
Reassembled and drove back to Gloucester. 
Apparently in that guise it went faster and was more economical!

Roly

[Ruairidh Dunford]

That film is absolutely extraordinary Roly - extraordinary!  

[James Anderson]

My best one was when I was 19 and a wine waiter/hall porter at Tilmouth Park Hotel (don't you know a very posh place in Cornhill on Tweed), escaping the wrath of Dad (Sir Ferguson Anderson) in fear of terrible A Level results (which weren't that bad!). My wee 1928 Chummy's clutch started slipping and I had a lot of steep hills to get up on the way back to Glasgow. On taking the starter motor off, I noticed the flywheel going forward probably about a 1/16th of an inch when I accelerated, so with minimal tools, I took it off, drilled out rivets of the lining of the clutch, copied the outline on to a suitable piece of cardboard and marched off to the local garage. 'Can you rivet this cardboard between the clutch lining and the the flywheel?' I asked. 'Not Bloody Likely Pal!'.... came the reply. 'It's for an Austin 7' I stated. 'Right away sir'. And it got me back to Glasgow! I've still got that piece of cardboard as a sort of trophy!

[bob46320]

When I was 17, an apprentice at Vickers Weybridge, I cycled to work - about 8 miles. Each day I passed a house in Woodham where a forlorn Ruby sat in the driveway. One day it had a For Sale £5 sign on it. I stopped and as our pay was £2 6s 8d a week, bought it for said £5.
Arriving home, told Dad about it and asked for a tow home, as the engine and gearbox were sitting on the remains of the back seat. He politely declined when I told him that the brakes were in another box of bits. My brother who was a few years older offered to tow it home (In Dad's car). We wound a load of old carpet around the bumper of Dad's 1952 Morris Oxford and towed the Ruby home. I didn't have a driving licence, but reasoned that one wasn't needed for the towed vehicle, as it was only a 'trailer'. Anyone seen CCE 954 ??

[Bill Sheehan]

Whilst there is plenty of interest in this lot of happy reminiscences May I butt in please with something totally unrelated?  I can't seem to find the posting place that JonE kindly set up for me because of the Management's refusal to acknowledge I exist at times, so attempt to ask for Help by riding on other subjects.  Help needed.  Over a year ago a Forum member asked me for details of the Australian Raid to England in 1981.  I finally found a friend who could help, but he was in the process of moving house.  He's only now unpacked his stuff and emailed some great detail, including photos of the UK cars in question.  My problem is - it was so long ago I've forgotten the name of the UK enquirer.  Hopefully he will get to read this and contact me on ausevenoz@gmail.com and I will be at last able to help him out.  Grateful for any help and apologies for changing the very interesting subject.   Cheers,  Bill in Oz

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On the subject of roadside repairs, it was many moons ago (although there was no moon that night) Tony Johns and I set off at midnight from Melbourne with other Club members to drive to Mt. Gambier on the annual Border Run to meet up with our South Aussie counterparts for the Long Weekend.  We'd borrowed Max Foster's Sports Special & fitted one of Tony's racing engines for the long return trip.  (Most racing enthusiasts would remember both Tony and Max from the 1981 Raid).  The Special had only one aeroscreen, so yours truly had the full issue of the Early-edition Saturday newspaper (about 3/4" thick) stuffed down my parka and the freezing wind still got through the zipper.  It was about 2am when the engine suddenly died and we were already parted from the convoy at the time.  Examination showed that all the necessary bolts had departed from the SU but the carb was luckily still hanging there by the hoses.  Even at that hour there was a lot of traffic on this main Highway, so we had some difficulty looking for strange objects like screws and bolts, as we were walking towards headlights that weren't always dimmed, meantime the torches seemed inadaquate when there were breaks in traffic.  It probably took us half an hour walking back a very long way, and despite being frozen (middle of Winter)  and despite fears of following traffic throwing away our bits with their speeding tyres,   we found everything we needed.  Nor had we been run over by anybody.  Bits installed, progress resumed.  Yet Another happy Austin Seven story?   Cheers,  Bill in Oz

[Ian Williams]

I think many of us would be inrested in seeing all the Raid information and pictures Bill, could you not sent it to someone who could then post it here on your behalf?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I asked (via email) in April ‘17, if you had a contact who may still have the programme from the ‘81 raid for the Mallory Park race, Bill.

If that programme exists it would still be of interest please.

Thank you.